Ukraine war volunteers are coming home, reckoning with difficult fight

To Dakota’s surprise, it wasn’t the shelling that terrified him most.

A Marine Corps veteran who volunteered to fight in Ukraine, he has taken cover behind walls as Russian gunfire punched through and felt the throttle of artillery so many times that his catchphrase, “It’s normal,” became a joke within the unit.

What wasn’t normal, he said, was the feeling of dread while he hid and listened as Russian attack helicopters strafed the position his team of tank hunters had just fled. That moment, he said, “was quite honestly the most unsettled I had been the entire time.”

Dakota, who is home in Ohio now after seven weeks of fighting abroad, is among the legion of Western volunteers who have taken up arms against Russia. Like others, he spoke on the condition that his full name not be disclosed, citing concerns for his safety and that of family and friends.

In interviews with The Washington Post, foreign fighters from the United States and elsewhere described glaring disparities between what they expected the war to be like and what they experienced. They recalled going into battle underequipped and outgunned, the occasional thrill of blowing up Russian vehicles, and feeling torn over whether to go back to Ukraine. Some intend to do so. Others saw friends die and decided enough is enough.

For several, an inflection point came in late April when 22-year-old Willy Joseph Cancel, another Marine Corps veteran, was killed in combat northwest of Mykolaiv, a region that has seen ferocious violence as Russian commanders have sought to widen territorial gains. The full circumstances surrounding Cancel’s death remain a mystery, and his body has not been recovered. Attempts to speak with Cancel’s family were unsuccessful.

There are no known U.S. military personnel in Ukraine, and the Biden administration has sought to discourage American citizens from independently joining the fight, though it is not against the law to do so. Officials have said that the battlefield is complex and dangerous, and that Americans wishing to help the Ukrainian cause should look to do so by other means. And while the exact number of Americans volunteering is unknown, an estimated 4,000 expressed interest after the invasion in late February. Many entered the fight after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky personally appealed to foreign volunteers to journey there and fight.

MORE

Spread the love
                

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

About the Author: NC Scout

NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .

3 Comments

  1. name redacted May 31, 2022 at 09:52

    Niece is married to a medic and he is over there.
    Obviously no more info can be disclosed.

    • Überdeplorable Psychedelic Cat Grass May 31, 2022 at 23:22

      Also, I intended no disrespect to your nephew-in-law with my comment below. I hope he makes it home in one piece, with no wounds be they physical or mental.

  2. Überdeplorable Psychedelic Cat Grass May 31, 2022 at 23:21

    I’m going to venture out on a limb here and say the fact that this was published by Stars and Stripes should give everyone an idea of the ideological bent of our military.

    If any of the readers remember when the invasion first happened, many of the people looking to go over there were Antifa and other left-wing malcontents. Certainly, not everyone over there falls into one of those categories. Nonetheless, they are bringing their lessons home to be used domestically here.

    It would be interesting to know how many people that were interviewed in that article were left wing versus right wing.

    Also, the Ukrainian naturalized citizen reminded me of some friends of a certain Central American country that are citizens of the US. One was American by birthright and the other became naturalized a few years back. Despite I’m sure what are their best efforts, they still view their other country as home. That’s all well and good but for countries that are of particular interest, that is a real problem as you all have divided loyalties especially among Middle Eastern countries for example. Something to think about…

    Scout knows who these friends are…good liquor and all

Comments are closed.

GUNS N GEAR

Categories

Archives

Spread the love